A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1059 The Bohemian Princess

"Is it okay to join the army in Luoyang?"

Wu Huaiyu asked his brother-in-law and his student Wei Erlang, who went to Luozhou last year to serve as a military officer.

"It's good, but if I have the chance, I would like to go to Lingnan with my teacher to practice."

"Luoyang is suitable for retirement, and young people are more suitable to go to the border areas." Wu Huaiyu said with a smile. Wei Zheng sat next to him and did not answer. From his point of view, he certainly hoped that his son could stay in Chang'an, and arranging to go to Luoyang was also to pave the way for his son to gain experience, but When it comes to going to Lingnan or Saibei, I feel a bit reluctant to do so.

But if his son takes the initiative to pursue him, Wei Zheng can't stop him. After all, he is also a dignified prime minister, and his thoughts are somewhat different from his wife's.

Deep down, Wei Zheng actually hopes that his son can go further.

"If you really want to go abroad for training, as long as Wei Gong agrees, I can help you arrange it. Guangzhou or Fengzhou is your choice. You can also go to Youzhou."

Wei Erlang glanced at his father,

Wei Zheng twisted his beard and said, "How about you go to Bingzhou Taiyuan."

"Aye, if I go to the north, I hope to go to Fengzhou or Shanyutai. I want to be able to really do something instead of staying in the rear like Taiyuan."

"Why don't you follow me to Lingnan? It's a good place for training. Staying there for three to five years will definitely make a huge difference."

"Okay, then let's go to Lingnan, but I don't want to stay in Guangzhou City, I want to go down there."

"no problem."

Wei Zheng opened his mouth and wanted to object, but in the end he didn't say it. He had never been to Lingnan, but he knew that Lingnan had changed dramatically in recent years. Moreover, with Wu Huaiyu around, he would always take care of Erlang.

On this day at Zheng Guogong's mansion, Wu Huaiyu chatted a lot with Wei Zheng, and Wan Niang also invited him to eat in the mansion. Pei specially treated him with home brew that Wei Zheng had treasured for many years, which made Wei Zheng feel very distressed.

Although this wine is home-brewed, there is very little left, so if you drink a jar, you will lose a jar. Nowadays, many people in Chang'an can't find this wine. They all say that a dou of gold is not as good as a sip of Wei Gong.

Of course, Wu Huaiyu didn’t think Lao Wei’s wine was that great.

In fact, that sentence has been changing over the years. At the earliest time, it was called Wei Gong's brewing, which was worth ten thousand per dou. Later, it became a matter of not exchanging Wei Gong's wine for a hundred thousand.

Later, it became one tael of gold, a mouthful of Wei Gong, and now a dou of gold is not as good as a mouthful of Wei Gong.

The price of this wine has skyrocketed.

But behind the scenes was Wei Zheng's continuous rise in official status. He had been Prime Minister of the Zhenguan Dynasty for many years, and was second only to Fang Xuanling among the prime ministers.
Many people spent a lot of money to buy not Wei Zheng's wine, but Wei Xianggong's relationship, hoping to get in touch with him.

Just like Tang Jian's family selling sheep in Chang'an, their sheep are very expensive, but many people still buy them. In fact, many people go there because of Tang Jian's status.

Another example is the Great Demon King Cheng Yaojin. He is currently the governor of Youzhou and holds the power of Youyun. I heard that those who do border trade there have to visit Cheng Yaojin's wharf. It's easy to visit the Cheng family wharf. There are many businesses run by the Cheng family in Youyan, just do business with them.

In those shops, the signature products are axes, including gold axes, silver axes, copper axes, and iron axes.

If you want to go to the dock or do something with Lao Cheng, you should buy an ax first. Whatever you want to do, you can buy whatever ax you want.

When Wu Huaiyu heard about this, he was amazed. Lao Cheng really had a way of doing things. Isn't this just like the tobacco, wine and tea shops opened by the brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law of some leaders in later generations?

Many powerful and wealthy families do this kind of thing.

Even though they all appear to be aloof and uncontaminated, in fact, which aristocratic family does not need a large amount of money and resources to support and maintain?
The only difference is that some people look good when they eat, and some people look bad when they eat.

Some upstarts who have no background, especially some military generals, are relatively simple and direct. It is said that there was a general from the third grade who was serving as the governor and guarding a place. His brother-in-law had someone set up a stall at the gate of the city to sell glutinous rice cakes. If you buy glutinous rice cakes from him, you can bring the goods into the city without paying taxes.
Even people who have not passed the paperwork can still enter the city. In the final analysis, it is just rent-seeking for power.

Wei Zheng likes to drink, and she brews some wine every year. She has remained the same since she became prime minister, but now her wife Pei is mainly in charge.
The value of Wei Gong's Home Brewing has more than doubled in the past ten years. In fact, it's just that, just like Wei Zheng usually writes some epitaphs for others, and the writing fee is very expensive.

Moreover, Wei Zheng could not be invited to write an epitaph without any identity. The basic price for Wei Zheng's sale was a horse with a saddle and bit, a white jade belt, or a hundred pieces of silk.

But having money doesn't necessarily mean you can invite Wei Zheng to take action, you also need to be able to build connections. Therefore, many people rush to buy Wei Gong's home brew to get in touch with the Wei family and build connections, and then ask for an epitaph.

Of course, many people did not really want to buy wine or seek an epitaph, but were trying to establish a relationship with Wei Zheng. Being able to establish a relationship with a prime minister would bring many benefits.

Last time, Wei Zheng wrote an epitaph for a Jiangnan noble family. The whole article only had 1,505 words. The other party generously gave him 500 silk brushes and bought some home brews from Wei Zheng's family.

Five hundred pieces of silk are now worth one hundred thousand, and each word costs more than sixty yuan. With the current price of food in Chang'an, Wei Zheng can exchange one stone of rice for one word.

It only took him an hour to write an epitaph, and he earned more than a thousand stones of rice.

Wei Zheng, as a second-grade special minister and prime minister, had only 500 shi of rice a year. If he passed the test and received a quarter of grain, it would only be more than 600 shi a year.

This epitaph of his was his three-year salary, and such an epitaph did not require any effort at all.

In fact, there are many people who ask Wu Huaiyu for calligraphy and articles, and the retouching fee given by Wei Zheng is higher than that of Wei Zheng. Wu Huaiyu is also known as one of the four great calligraphy masters today, not to mention Wu Huaiyu's three masterpieces in poetry, calligraphy and painting.

But how could Wu Huaiyu care about that little money?

Many high-ranking officials invited Wu Huaiyu to paint, but Wu Huaiyu had no time at all. Painting the full-length portraits of the twenty-four heroes of Lingyan Pavilion and the eighteen bachelors of the Qin Dynasty for the emperor made Wu Huaiyu very tired at first.

"I heard that Mr. Yang is also going to step down as prime minister?" Wu Huaiyu asked.

Wei Zheng did not deny that Yang Shidao was the emperor's brother-in-law and the younger brother of his old husband Yang Gongren. Yang Shidao likes to write poems, but his poems can only be considered average. However, Yang Shidao is recognized as a good old man and has excellent connections. Yang Shidao's dismissal this time is actually somewhat similar to Xiao Yu's dismissal.

Xiao Yu was an old fool and was tricked by the outrageous case of the Li family. He only offended the emperor. The case of the Li family was outrageous. Shangshu Zuo Cheng's younger brother had an affair with his stepmother and dared to put the blame on the emperor. In the end, he ended up dead and disgraced.

This case led to another case.

Someone secretly reported Prime Minister Yang Shidao's son for illegality, and they reported two of his sons at once. One was Zhao Jie, the son of Yang Shidao's wife Princess Changguang and her ex-husband Zhao Cijing. Zhao Jie's father died on the battlefield in the early Tang Dynasty, leaving him a Kaihua County. Dukedom, and then the princess remarried Yang Shidao.

Now Zhao Jie is not young anymore, and he is a member of the imperial guards, and his rank is not low, the fifth rank, and he can wear a scarlet robe. But this kid thinks his position is too low, and he feels that he is restricted in Chang'an, so he wants to go to the countryside, and it would be best if he could be a governor.

So, he went to the princess and Yang Shidao.

Yang Shidao, a good old man, was very kind to the son his wife had with her ex-husband. He came to ask for help and helped with the operation. He actually arranged for Zhao Jie to be the governor of Xiazhou.

Although he is the governor of Xiazhou, he is also the governor of a state. There are too many violations in this matter.

If it were just this, it wouldn't be enough for Li Shimin to dismiss him directly.

Of course, Yang Shidao also gave birth to children after his marriage to Princess Changguang. His eldest son, Yang Yuzhi, was only seventeen or eighteen years old. The emperor liked his nephew quite a lot and made a special decision to marry Yuanji's daughter, the head of Shouchun County, to him.

but,

This time, as the Li family case happened, someone sent a letter to the imperial court accusing Yang Yuzhi of having an affair with his aunt, Princess Yongjia.
That's okay.

Li Shimin immediately asked people to conduct a thorough investigation secretly.
The result was shocking. It really happened. Princess Yongjia had just got married two years ago. She was Li Shimin's younger sister. She prepared her dowry together with Li Shimin's daughter Princess Changle. But Li Shimin gave his daughter multiples of what his younger sister gave him. This caused a lot of trouble and made Princess Yongjia angry.

I don’t know what happened, but Princess Yongjia had an affair with her nephew Yang Yuzhi, but the two were actually about the same age.

As the investigation deepened, Li Shimin learned that the person who made the report was Princess Yongjia's husband, Dou Fengjie, the Duke of Fu and the consort-in-law.

This son-in-law Dou's father is Dou Gui, a clan brother of Li Shimin's mother, who once served as the governor of Yizhou.

Dou Fengjie is Li Shimin's cousin, and Dou married Princess Yongjia.

Unexpectedly, Princess Yongjia actually had an affair with her nephew. How could Dou Fengjie bear it after knowing this, so he took advantage of Li's case to expose the matter to the emperor.

Princess Yongjia's biological mother is Queen Dou. She and Dou Fengjie are cousins, while Zhao Jie is the son of the princess's sister and her nephew. And Yang Yuzhi married the daughter of Yuan Ji, the princess of Shouchun County, who called Princess Yongjia's aunt.

It's just chaos.

It is said that after Li Shimin found out about the matter, he summoned Princess Yongjia, Princess Changguang, and the consorts Yang Shidao and Dou Fengjie into the palace.
He also called Yang Yuzhi.

Li Shimin kicked Yang Yuzhi twice and slapped Princess Yongjia twice.

Originally, the emperor wanted to kill Yang Yuzhi, but Princess Changguang knelt down and kowtowed to plead with her, causing her head to bleed.

In the end, Li Shimin couldn't bear it anymore, so he passed away from father to son.

Of course, the public reason for dismissing Yang Shidao from the post of prime minister was that Yang Shidao arranged for Zhao Jie to be the governor for his own purposes. Zhao Jie was also dismissed from office. Not only did he not become the governor, but he was also dismissed from his original fifth-grade military position.

As for Yang Yuzhi, the emperor's punishment was to take Yang Shidao and the princess home for confinement and reflection.

Li Shimin was also very helpless about his sister Princess Yongjia. She couldn't kill her. Dou Fengjie wanted a divorce, but the princess was willing, but Li Shimin couldn't agree. If this matter spread out, the royal family would be disgraced. The nobles originally looked down on the emperor. .

In the end, the princess was sentenced to solitary confinement, and Dou Fengjie could only continue to wear this green hat.

Li Shimin ordered that this matter be kept strictly confidential, but there is no airtight wall, and some news will still get out, especially this kind of scandalous story, which excites the people of Chang'an the most.

There are still very few people who know about it now, only a small number of people at the top know about it, but it will definitely spread slowly.

Yang Shidao is very unlucky. He is such a good gentleman, but his own son is such a bastard. The son his wife had with her ex-husband is also unreliable.

Of course, when Yang Shidao was appointed as the minister, he only temporarily supported Wei Zheng. His position as prime minister was already unstable.

But it is quite emotional to give up the prime ministership in this way.

"Then I would like to congratulate Wei Gong, he will be appointed as the servant again."

Wei Zheng was not very happy. He now knew that his disciples would save trouble, and he was actually not much different from the servants.

I can only say that the upper class circles in Chang'an are really chaotic.
Wei Zheng even wanted to say that this was all because the upper beam was out of alignment and the lower beam was crooked. Li Shimin and his sister-in-law had given birth to a son after ten years, and they had not taken the lead well.

But Wu Huaiyu was not surprised. Not to mention the dirty Tang Dynasty bastards, there were not many such rotten people in the upper class circles in other dynasties and generations. They were all full of food.
We should send all these guys to the frontiers to expand territory and colonize overseas. At least they can still shine and stay in Chang'an. They will really only make Chang'an dirty and stink.

Wei Zheng held the wine glass and was really shocked by the princess's indulgence. He thought that his son had also betrothed a princess. What if the princess's daughter-in-law did the same thing when she came in in the future?
The Wei family is also a family of poets and scholars. How can it be ruined?

It would be great if I could break off the engagement.

This royal princess is really afraid to ask for it!
On the contrary, the daughter-in-law married to the Wu family is quite nice, filial and polite.
Wei Zheng was deeply worried about his future princess and daughter-in-law.

(End of this chapter)